


Dog Showings

by LadyDrace



Series: Junk Ficlets from Tumblr [105]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Deputy Stiles Stilinski, Dogs, First Meetings, Fluff, Getting Together, M/M, Mentioned Kate Argent, POV Derek Hale, Realtor Derek Hale
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-06
Updated: 2017-05-06
Packaged: 2018-10-28 17:47:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,643
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10836237
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyDrace/pseuds/LadyDrace
Summary: Derek has a great idea how to get more clients for his and Laura's realtor business. Turns out it's a better idea than even he imagined.





	Dog Showings

**Author's Note:**

  * For [eeyore9990](https://archiveofourown.org/users/eeyore9990/gifts).



> Orignally [posted on Tumblr](http://ladydrace.tumblr.com/post/148845900441/dog-showings) for Eeyore9990's birthday. <3
> 
> Unbetaed.

”Derek!” Laura yells from inside her office the moment Derek steps through the front entrance. He takes his time hanging his coat on the ornate hat stand she bought and has bugged him to use, checking that the front room looks tidy and all their ads are up to date, before making his way to Laura’s office.

 

”Yeah, what is it?”

 

She holds up a pamphlet accusingly. ”What the hell is this?”

 

”Initiative. You told me to take some.”

 

”I meant be a little more sociable when you do showings, Derek! Not… this!”

 

He plops down in the chair in front of her desk with a sigh. ”What’s wrong with it?”

 

”Showings for _dogs_? Since when are dogs buying houses?”

 

”Don’t be stupid, it’s for dog _owners_.”

 

”But why would you wanna do that?! Don’t get me wrong, I love dogs, but let’s be honest! They shed, they slobber, they make tiny footprints! Do you wanna clean houses after every showing?”

 

”No, but I will if you’re so worried.”

 

She slams down the pamphlet and glares at him. ”Oh, make no mistake, you will. This is coming out of your own time and/or pay.”

 

”Fine,” Derek huffs and gets to his feet. ”But this is gonna bring in more clients, just you wait.”

 

”I wi-ill!” she sing-songs at him as he leaves the office. Sometimes he wonders why he thought it was a good idea to go into business with his sister.

 

But he knows his idea is good! If nothing else just because of how often people ask him dog-related questions during showings.

 

”Hello?”

 

Derek stops in the doorway to his office and turns to the front door. They do have a reception desk, but Cora’s condition for taking the gig as their receptionist had been to never have to go to work before ten, ever. So because Derek suffers from a chronic case of being Laura’s little brother and therefore her favored torture victim, he usually gets to greet walk-ins.

 

”Hi, welcome to Hale Housing. How can I help you?” Derek asks the newcomer with a practiced ease that comes from years of forced politeness.

 

It’s disturbing what a petty thrill Derek gets when the guy holds up one of his pamphlets, especially since he only finished them yesterday, and only had time to drop a few here and there on his way to the gym the day before. ”Is this for real?” the guy asks, brown eyes wide and hopeful. ”I can book a viewing for my dogs?”

 

”Yes, but since you need opposible thumbs to sign at the dotted line, it would be practical if you came along.”

 

The guy’s wide mouth opens to a toothy laugh, and Derek feels his palms go slightly sweaty, because frankly, the man is really handsome. And Derek never knows how to handle himself around people he’s attracted to. Dammit. He’s torn, because if only the guy had come in for a regular viewing, Derek could have passed him on to Laura. But since he’s specifically here for Derek’s amazing initiative, there’s no way around it. But, then again, there’s something to be said for the simple pleasures of I-told-you-so.

 

”Hah, I get the feeling this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship,” the guy says, holding out a large hand. ”Hello, I’m Stiles, and I’d like to buy a house, please.”

 

”Derek Hale, and I would love to sell you one.”

 

Stiles grins, and keeps the shake going for quite a lot longer than common courtesy dictates. ”Show me what you got, then.” Something in Stiles’ voice makes Derek wonder if maybe he’s not just talking about houses, but he forces himself to be professional.

 

”Well, then. Step into my office.”

 

”Don’t mind if I do.”

 

Derek has to wipe his hands on his pants, because there’s really no mistaking the flirtatious edge to Stiles’ voice this time, but soon enough they’re talking about houses, and Derek always feels better in a professional context.

 

”Wait, he’s got how many dogs?” Laura asks as she turns onto the street where Derek is meeting Stiles.

 

”Five.”

 

”And they’re all, what, Irish Wolfhounds?”

 

”Three Great Danes, One Irish Wolfhound, and one Pitbull.”

 

She raises an eyebrow at him. ”That’s suspiciously accurate memory there, bro.”

 

”He told me like three times. Says he never grew up with siblings or pets, and thinks he’s making up for it now by becoming the dog equivalent of a crazy cat lady.”

 

”At twenty-six?”

 

”His words, not mine.”

 

”Right. Still suspiciously knowledgable about the guy if you ask me.”

 

Derek groans. ”Laura…”

 

”Tell me one personal fact about your last client. Just one.”

 

It’s annoying when she’s right, but Derek doesn’t usually retain any information outside of the strictly necessary with clients, mostly because he doesn’t generally like people. Most people are dicks in some way, and remembering them at all once the deal is done is just a recipe for frustration. But Stiles… Derek has to admit he finds him fascinating. Even just watching his long arms move is cause for distraction, and it’s a little worrying, actually. Derek doesn’t do well with attraction. His dating history is abysmal to say the least.

 

He’s silent for long enough that they arrive at the empty house, and Laura even stops the engine. Which means she wants to talk. Dammit.

 

”Der, maybe-”

 

”No.”

 

”What could it hurt?”

 

”He could turn out to be a complete lunatic and try to murder my entire family.”

 

Laura sighs. ”Derek. Derek, I’m begging you. Don’t let her ruin your life like this. She’s behind bars, hopefully for life, and if you keep letting her scare you… she’s gonna win anyway.”

 

He doesn’t want to look at her. He knows, logically, that she’s right. But it doesn’t make the fear any smaller. ”Thanks for the ride,” he says shortly, and gets out of the car. ”I’ll take the bus back.”

 

”Derek-”

 

”I’ll see you later.” He slams the door and stomps up the drive. He has a house to show, he can’t talk about this now.

 

Laura’s car has barely vanished in the distance before a rather large van takes its place, and Stiles hops out.

 

”You’re early,” Derek says, because he has problems with impulse control when he’s taken off guard. ”The showing is at nine.”

 

”I know, but I had to borrow this van to fit all the puppies in, and once they were in I might as well take off. I figured they could sniff around the neighborhood if you weren’t here yet.”

 

There’s some ruckus in the back of the van, and Derek braces himself for an ambush of massive dogs. He loves dogs, but huge, excitable ones always makes him worry they’re gonna knock him over. Probably comes from a lifetime of sisters who act like they were raised by wolves and love to ambush him for no reason, just to make him eat carpet.

 

To his pleased surprise, there’s no rush of dogs as the van opens. They’re all clearly excited, but stay in place until Stiles orders them out, and none of them charge at him, thank god. Stiles has a handful of leashes in his hand, but doesn’t put any of them on, instead ordering the whole bunch to sit on the sidewalk, only having to tell one of them twice.

 

”They’re well trained.”

 

Stiles grins as he slams the van doors. ”Dude, they have to be. If they don’t stop when I tell them to, they could literally kill me just from being happy to see me.”

 

”I’ll bet,” Derek mutters, eyeing the massive wolfhound.

 

”Right! Intros! From left to right, Taffy the wolfhound, who has a slight attention problem, which we are working on. Don and Jed, litter bros, who should really be called Yin and Yang, because seriously, look at them.” Derek has to agree. The Great Danes are almost exact opposites in their black and white color scheme. ”Joey the pibble, who has no insecurities with his size, because he knows he’s the cutest, and finally, on the end, Stacy, who is old and only really loves food. Gang, meet Derek.” Stiles makes a sweeping gesture towards Derek, and all the dogs wag their tails, but none of them cast Derek even the smallest glance. ”Okay, tough crowd,” Stiles says with a grin, and turns to Derek. ”So, when is it okay to go in?”

 

”Uhhh. Now?” Derek doesn’t mean it to sound like a question, but he’s still stuck on how well trained the dogs are.

 

”Alrighty, lead the way!” Stiles says, and follows Derek up the walkway, apparently perfectly happy leaving the dogs sitting on the sidewalk. Derek can’t help but check over his shoulder, but they keep sitting there, eyes following Stiles like lasers as Derek unlocks the door and they step inside.

 

”Spacious,” Stiles comments with an approving nod.

 

”Like you asked for. I thought you might like this one particularly for the wider doors. A wheelchair user lived here before and had them modified.”

 

”Awesome. Alright, first doggy test.” That sounds a little ominous, and Derek unconsciously steps closer to the wall as Stiles turns to face the still open front door and whistles sharply. All five dogs come barreling up the walkway and through the door in one big pile, only the elderly Stacy lagging behind slightly. They all skid to a halt in front of Stiles and he pets them all lovingly in reward. ”Good dogs! You’re all so good! No one got stuck or slammed a shoulder into anything! Well done! Treats for everyone!” he declares, and proceeds to offer them all biscuits from his jacket pocket. They do leave some crumbs, but Derek did go into this knowing he’d have to swing a broom, so it’s okay.

 

They go through the rest of the house and Stiles does several other tests, parking the dogs in one room and calling them from another, making sure no one slips on too slippery floors and finally letting them all have a good run around the spaceous yard.

 

”So. What do you think?” Derek asks when they’re done, and Stiles shrugs, watching his dogs sniff the bushes.

 

”It’s a great house. I love it. But…”

 

”But… what? You can tell me, since, you know, you’re actually paying me to find you a place. No skin off my teeth if you wanna look at a different one.”

 

”Yeah, okay, good point. But can you, like… hold this one? Meaning, could I look at another house or maybe two, and still have a shot at this one?”

 

”Sure, as long as there are no other interested parties.”

 

Stiles beams at him. ”All right. Great.”

 

”Okay. I do have a few other suggestions lined up in case you didn’t like this one, so we can do another viewing tomorrow if you want. Or maybe Thursday.”

 

”Tomorrow’s good.”

 

”Good.”

 

There’s a weird moment of silence where Stiles is just smiling at him, and Derek smiles back, because he’s supposed to smile at clients. But by the time Stiles has piled all the dogs into the van again and driven off, Derek is disturbed to realize he’s still smiling.

 

Laura is gonna be _intolerable_.

 

Over the next three weeks, Stiles looks at six more houses. He brings the dogs to all of them, tests thoroughly and enthusiastically, while chatting endlessly about… well, everything. Himself, his dogs, his family, but also recent trends in political science, the controversies of cloning, the entire history of how the thermometer was invented, and several other topics that leave Derek sort of dazed.

 

But it’s all so interesting he can’t help but get into it, and he leaves at least two of the houses dismayed to realize he never actually got around to _showing_ it. Joey the pitbull apparently decides that Derek is awesome, and anytime Stiles isn’t keeping them in one place, Joey will trot over and plant his butt on top of Derek’s foot, like claiming ownership, and while Derek isn’t usually the kind of person who loses his shit over dogs, he does melt a little bit at that. Stacy doesn’t care about anyone unless they have food, and the other three dogs are apparently still young enough that horsing around is the preferred pastime. Derek spend quite some time sweeping floors, but he can’t honestly bring himself to care.

 

Meanwhile, Derek’s little project grows in size. People call about bringing other pets, usually cats, but also, on one memorable occasion, a small horse. Laura teases him every day about it, but she can’t really argue with Derek’s increased sales numbers. Except for Stiles, who keeps asking to see more houses.

 

”Is he being that difficult?” Laura asks one day over lunch when Derek tells her he’s showing Stiles another house the next day.

  
”No, actually, he seems to like them all fine. I think maybe he’s just gun shy because it’s his first house.”

 

Laura boggles. ”Are you telling me he has five massive dogs in an _apartment_?!”

 

Derek glares at her for immediately thinking the worst about Stiles. ”No, he’s been living in his father’s house for a few years, but he’s got a pretty decent income now, and his dad is getting tired of having his house full of dogs.”

 

”Well, that’s okay, I guess.”

 

”Why do you care,” Derek grumbles, poking at his salad. ”You’re the one who keeps nagging about the dogs.”

 

”I don’t nag!”

 

He narrows his eyes at her until she starts to squirm. ”Okay, maybe I nag a little bit,” she admits. ”But it’s only because I didn’t think this whole petting zoo idea was any good. I thought you’d have to scoop up poop after every showing. People’s pets are always so badly trained.”

 

Derek doesn’t feel the need to reveal that he has in fact had the pleasure of a few clean-ups now, but he still thinks it’s worth it for how many more houses he’s sold. And Stiles’ dogs have never been anything but well-behaved. ”You should see Stiles’ dogs,” he says before realizing it. ”They’re ridiculously well trained.” He realizes his mistake the minute the words are out of his mouth.

 

”I’d love to!” Laura says, grinning from ear to ear. ”I’ll just pop in and meet him tomorrow at your showing.”

 

That is the last thing Derek wants. He knows he’s getting a little close to Stiles, and he knows that Laura would read all kinds of things into that, but it’s not gonna _be_ anything. It’s _not_. But Laura is excited, and Derek cannot for the life of him come up with an excuse as to why she shouldn’t be allowed to show up, so he pastes on a smile and gives up on the salad to order a meatball sub instead. He’s earned it.

 

True to her word, the next day Laura shows up just in time to see the now familiar van pull into the street. She watches with poorly hidden interest as Stiles unloads the dogs, and Derek has to admit he’s a little jealous when they all turn to her and wag their tails as soon as they spot her. Only Joey looks eager to greet Derek, and Stiles seems to notice Derek’s mood, because he only makes the dogs sit for a moment before relasing them to go say hi. Laura shows herself as the big fat hypocrite she is by happily letting all the massive dogs slobber all over her nice suit, but Derek ignores her in favor of squatting down to greet the faithful Joey.

 

”Hi! You must be Laura!” Stiles greets, over the excited barking and panting of his dogs. ”Derek’s told me all about you.”

 

”Oh, damn, I’m sorry then,” Laura laughs, and Derek is torn between jealousy at all the attention Stiles is lavishing on her, and happiness that they seem to be getting along. It helps that Stiles keeps glancing his way, making it clear that he’s not actually turning all his focus on her.

 

”So what’s wrong with all the houses Derek shows you?” Laura asks without an ounce of shame, and Derek wants to crawl under a rock, but Stiles just laughs.

 

”Nothing’s wrong, they’re all awesome. I just wanna examine all my choices before making my pick, you know? Or maybe I just like seeing Derek’s grumpy face a few times a week,” he adds, and Derek is sure it’s a joke. Pretty sure. Maybe? Stiles winks at him, and he almost drops his briefcase.

 

”Well.” He clears his throat awkwardly. ”You’ve met now, so. Should we get started?”

 

”Sure,” Stiles says happily, calling the dogs back to attention while Derek gives Laura a very clear grimace of _please go away now_.

 

”I guess I should get back to work myself,” Laura says after sticking her tongue out at Derek, because she’s apparently five years old. ”It was nice meeting you, Stiles!”

 

”Yeah, you too!”

 

Derek almost pulls Stiles bodily into the house before they start exchanging numbers or something.

 

”So. Your sister.”

 

”More like pain in my neck,” Derek grumbles, but it’s hard to keep up his frown when Stiles is smiling at him like that, like being introduced to Derek’s loved ones is something amazing.

 

”That’s what happens when you work with family. Trust me, I know.”

 

Derek nods, because yeah, he knows. One of the first things Stiles told him was how he’d trained as a deputy under his father before getting a job at another Sheriff’s station the next county over. Derek thought it was bad enough working with Laura, he couldn’t imagine living with her as well, so he applauds the fact that Stiles and his father haven’t killed each other yet. Though some of the things Stiles had told him hinted heavily at some friction that will probably soon escalate if Stiles doesn’t get himself and his dogs out from under his father’s roof.

 

”Why _do_ you keep seeing more houses?” Derek blurts, not even entirely sure why. He’ll blame Laura for it later, definitely. ”You keep talking about the first one, you could just buy it now. Why risk it being taken by someone else?”

 

Stiles gives him a look. ”Why didn’t you tell _me_ someone else had made an offer?”

 

Derek feels his jaw clench, because how does Stiles even know that. ”There was no offer.”

 

”Bullshit,” Stiles says, though he’s still smiling. ”I talked to the neighbors, they’re still in touch with the old owner, and they told me she’d gotten like five offers.”

 

”Some of those were before you,” Derek argues weakly. ”They decided against it for various reasons.”

 

”Yeah, but not all of them. Did the latest ones also just… decide against it? Or… did you help them?”

 

Something in his face makes Derek pause. He wants to defend himself, but Stiles looks… weirdly hopeful. And while Derek really doesn’t like examining his feelings this closely, he’s not an idiot. He did gently steer the last few interested parties towards other options. Without telling Stiles.

 

”Did you just keep seeing houses to… see me?” Derek asks quietly, kind of afraid of the answer.

 

”Yeah. Did you keep other people from buying that house so you could keep showing me more houses?”

 

”Yeah.” Quiet descends between them, but it’s not uncomfortable like Derek expects. It’s strangely exciting, not scary or tense like Derek is used to when people show interest in him.

 

”So. What do we do now?” Stiles asks softly, and Derek shrugs.

 

”I don’t know. I’m not good at this. My previous… I’m not… I don’t have the best experience with these kinds of things,” he says vaguely, not about to lay it all on the table yet. But Stiles seems perfectly happy with the avoidance, and considering some of the deeply personal things he’s told Derek in between Wikipedia binge finds and dentist waiting room reading materials, Derek dares to hope that Stiles will be okay with his distressing past.

 

”How about dinner? At my new house, maybe?” Stiles offers, and it takes Derek a second to catch up.

 

”Uh. Sure. Okay. I’ll… get the paperwork ready, then.” He feels weirdly warm, and wonders if this is how it’s supposed to feel. Like this was what was missing with… _her_.

 

”Cool. I’ll text you?” Stiles asks, and Derek can only nod. It seems like enough for Stiles, and he leaves Derek to it, rounding up the dogs without giving the house a second glance. Derek is still standing outside the house several minutes later, wondering what he’s doing.

 

It turns out that what he’s doing is selling a house. And then showing up at said house, still a mess of boxes, to be served some pretty good pasta, and be appropriated for a pillow by Joey, who is apparently more fond of Derek than his doggy bed, now. Which somehow leads to more visits, and to Derek helping install the largest doggy door he’s ever seen, complete with chip activated security, and after that enjoying a beer on the porch. And then it’s movie dates and dinner dates and meeting Stiles’ father and before he knows it he’s selling his own apartment.

 

As he packs up another box of random papers from work, he finds one of the first pamphlets, a little faded and worn from being stuffed in a box for over a year, but still advertizing: _Hale Housing. Now doing dog showings. Bring your best friend along to see your new home!_

 

”Best idea you ever had, huh?” Laura says and elbows him in the side.

 

”Yeah,” he says, thinking of Stiles smiling at him from the other side of the bed that morning, in those brief five minutes before they were both swarmed with dogs. ”Yeah, I think it was.”

 

End.


End file.
